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Śrīdīp Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Devādhī Deva, Deveśvaram Mahādeva Kī Jai, Śrīsī Alagapurī Jī Mahādeva Kī Jai, Indu Dhanan Samrāj Maravananjī Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśvaguru Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara Paramaśaraṇjī Gurudeva Kī Jai. Om. Īśā Vāsyam Idaṁ Sarvam, Yat Kiñca Jagatyām Jagatena Tyaktena Bhunjhīthā Ma Gṛdhaḥ Kasyasviddhanam. Om Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ Śāntiḥ. This was the first mantra of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, the first Upaniṣad of the Vedas. We are now continuing. I will repeat the sixth mantra. We are trying to understand a language used tens of thousands of years ago. You can imagine that the Upaniṣads are like PhD-level texts. It is a doctoral level. While reading the Upaniṣads, you are expected to have read and know the Vedas, to know the history, to know the Purāṇas, to know so many things. It is expected. This is like a short version, a summary of how to attain pure and proper knowledge. That is why it is so complicated to understand the Purāṇas, because they assume we lived in that era, tens of thousands of years back, when all that knowledge was easily available everywhere. The sixth mantra begins. I will repeat it, as we did last time, because it is one set of mantras I will read in sequence. This repetition of three plus three mantras says the same thing: into that great darkness go those who follow avidyā. Avidyā is like general knowledge—the knowledge we need for commerce, for living, for everything. So, those who are studying this knowledge are going into the darkness. That is clear. There is nothing to complain about. But now the ṛṣi expands on the first thought and says, "But those who are concentrated only on spiritual knowledge are finishing even in the worst darkness." So, one who is studying commerce, chemistry, physics, and everything goes into the darkness, and one who is doing tapasyā, yoga, and everything goes even into the worst darkness. There are definitely different things you will achieve with one type of knowledge, and definitely a different thing will be achieved by the other type of knowledge. With worldly knowledge, you will achieve one thing; with spiritual knowledge, you will achieve other things. How do we know that it is suṣumnā dhāraṇā? We heard this from people of old who explained it to us. What we know, what we can feel around us—we feel that this is cold or hot or whatever, we can see what is happening and so on. There are many things we can take as reality. One of these realities, one of these pramāṇas—the means that tell us something is or is not, correct or not—is also called śabda pramāṇa. Śabda means the books, the things in the books you read. You do not have to... if you have a proper book, a correct book from a respected author, from a respected publisher, then you can believe that what is written in that book is truth. Because we do not live so long that we can experiment and live through absolutely everything happening on this planet. That is why we said we believe also in our elders. If our mother or father tells us the fire is hot, we believe them. If they tell us that water is wet, we believe them, and so on. We do not have to experience everything. If we use books—reading one book, let's say for 20 hours, can save you 5,000 hours of experience. That is the power of just a normal book. Now, can you imagine what happens with the Upaniṣad? So we heard this from other older people: there are different things you can achieve with worldly knowledge, and there are different things you achieve with spiritual knowledge. They told us, "You have to use them together. You use the knowledge of how to make bread, chapati, and so on, so that you can survive. You use that knowledge to achieve comfort in this life, to advance in this life. And then you use the spiritual knowledge to cross the border of death. Because this worldly knowledge will only lead you until death; it is valid only until then. After that, we have no clue. So we need the knowledge which will take us above." We can cross this whole life by following both knowledges. So, from time immemorial, the Vedas were telling karma yoga and spiritual practice go together. Always go together. Learning of normal things and learning spiritual things always go together. This is now a repetition, because this is such an important point. They decided to use again three mantras to explain the same point with different words. So instead of vidyā, they use sambhūti. "Those who worship the unmanifest, who worship this world, go into the darkness. And one who worships other worlds goes into even worse darkness." So we have two points: we have manifest and unmanifest. And again, one who worships the manifest and unmanifest goes into the darkness; one who worships the manifest goes into greater darkness. It is the same thing, just slightly changed. "Anya devāḥur sambhūta, anya dahura sambhavat, iti śuśruma dhīrāṇām ye nastadvicacakṣire." The differences are the results from the manifest, and the differences are the results from the unmanifest. How do we know this? Again, we heard it from the old people who know, who told us. And then again, repetition. The one who knows and understands both the manifested world and the unmanifested world can cross the border of death and attain eternal life. Because this is so complicated... through the following of the unmanifest, you cross death, and with the manifest, you attain eternal life. These are, how to say, things which we have to understand deeper. These are only the basic knowledge of this mantra, which says that there is a manifested world and there is an unmanifested world. There is this knowledge which you use in this world only, and then there is a knowledge which can make you cross over. In one of these translations—because this is one of the very complicated Upaniṣads, translated so many times by so many people—it is said that everything... There is no "how" you cross; get rid of the evil. In the Upaniṣads, there is only one evil. It is called attachment. Only evil is attachment. Too good for our eyes, this. Whatever is attachment is not good. So this part of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, which is so contradictory, basically tells us, "Please, you are living in the body. Use this body. Do not reject this body. But use it in such a way that you can cross over to the other side to get complete knowledge." Whatever you have to achieve, there are two things which we have to know when we are studying any spiritual text. First is with intellect, and the second thing is with the heart. So whenever you read any book, you find what resonates with you, and then you use the mālā, and you repeat the mālā to try to go deeper inside. All the techniques which we got from Swāmījī, all the everything we know, all these lectures and everything, they are just piling on each other. They are just somehow going deeper and deeper in us, so that we can finally get realized. Nārāyaṇa Nārāyaṇa... Siddhip Nārāyaṇa Bhagavān Kī Jai, Deva Dī Deva Deva Īśvara Mahādeva Kī Jai, Hindu Dharma Samrāṭ Maravanam Jai, Bhagavān Kī Jai, Viśva Guru Mahāmaleśvara Parama Maheśvara Guru Deva Kī Jai.